David Singleton
Chief Technology Officer at Stripe
CTO at Stripe for 5+ years responsible for engineering and design; previously VP of Engineering at Google for over a decade; built Stripe's product-oriented engineering culture that delayed hiring their first PM for years.
Dimension Profile
Key Themes
Episode Summary
David Singleton, CTO of Stripe, reveals how Stripe built a product-oriented engineering culture so strong they delayed hiring their first PM for years. He describes their co-creation process with early users like Figma and Slack, and shares unique internal practices including friction logging, walking the store, and engineer occasions that operationalize their 'be meticulous in your craft' principle.
Leadership Principles
- → Find the correct early users and co-create the product with them — shared Slack channels, regular demos, and only go broader when the alpha group is super happy
- → Every engineer building product at Stripe exercises many attributes you'd find in PMs at other companies — product-oriented engineers reduce the need for PM layers
- → Be meticulous in your craft — operationalize this through friction logging, walking the store, and engineer occasions
Notable Quotes
"We co-create the product with early users. We had shared Slack channels, we'd show them product on a very regular basis. Only when that original alpha group was super, super happy did we then think it might be ready to go to a broader audience."
— On Stripe's approach to product development with companies like Figma and Slack
"Every engineer building product at Stripe really has many of the attributes and will exercise many of the attributes that you'll often find in PMs in other companies."
— On why Stripe was able to hold off on hiring PMs for years
Want to know how you compare?
Take the Assessment